Dilatory, Defence, Pleas

DILATORY - That which is intended for delay. It is a maxim that delays in law are odious.

DILATORY DEFENCE - A dilatory defence is one, the object of which is to dismiss, suspend, or obstruct the suit, without touching the merits, until the impediment or obstacle insisted on shall be removed.

These defences are of four kinds: 1. To the jurisdiction of the court; 2. To the person of the plaintiff or defendant; 3. To the form of proceedings, as that the suit is irregularly brought, or it is defective in its appropriate allegation of the parties; and, 4. To the propriety of maintaining the suit itself, because of the pendancy of another suit for the same controversy.

DILATORY PLEAS - Those which delay the plaintiff's remedy by questioning, not the cause of action, but the propriety of the suit, or the mode in which the remedy is sought.
   

This entry contains material from Bouvier's Legal Dictionary, a work published in the 1850's.